Drawing a storyboard- the REALTIME version.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2026-09-23 | Drawing a storyboard- the REALTIME version.Dragon Bust Time Lapse Zbrush SculptArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2021-10-26 | Zbrush ZTL model available here: cgsbgs-chrisscalf.gumroad.com along with real time silent video of the "making of" process.Digital Realism Warm-up practice..Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2021-10-26 | Here is a typical warm up for me, for doing photo realism digitally. It's time-lapse down to a minute, obviously. I did upload the real time videos on my gum road page here: cgsbgs-chrisscalf.gumroad.com Not a tutorial, the videos are silent. But it's about 3 hours of footage. Also, uploaded the final PSD layered piece, in case you want to look at it. I wouldn't call it a finished piece, as I did not go full detail on it. Thanks for watching!Redhead 3D character WIPArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2021-10-20 | Making some human characters from scratch in Zbrush. I love how it’s possible to start with a sphere and just go wild sculpting from the imagination, and then seeing it come to life when exported and lit up in Maya. And then the Xgen in Maya is super fun to sculpt with as well— creating hair. This is just a work in progress— I have roughed in the basic shapes to make look “alive enough” to get the likeness I am looking for. Now, I will go in and add the super fine details. #zbrush #Maya #digital #sculpting #3Dart #3Danimation #photorealismpersonal 3d work... for funArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2021-10-12 | Here’s a little personal project I have been noodling on the side for the last week and a half. Work in progress! Sculpting and texturing from scratch (starting with a sphere) in Zbrush. Still lots of detailing to do -in hair, clothes etc. But as a side thing, who knows if I will ever truly finish. Still, always good to get it to a point to be able to share!Sketching with Paint... 9-2-21Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2021-09-02 | noodlin' a doodle.My first ever CG person...Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2020-10-26 | Hey, all... Just dropping in real quick to touch base with followers who might wonder what I have been up to. During this past summer's crazy Covid madness, I intensified my Zbrush learning and also learned Maya. Here is my first ever full color CG portrait created from scratch. Kids/babies are the most difficult to do (IMHO) due to the lack of detail there is to create the illusion of realism. Visit my Artstation for more: artstation.com/chrisscalf_cgsbgs
#animation #illustration #art #artist #graphicdesign #maya3d #zbrushsculptcartoon demoArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2020-05-09 | This is fun to do... Draw on a pre-existing mesh in ZBrush. Then, record a quick motion capture bit with ipisoft. Bring it into Lightwave and animate. About a half day's worth of goofing off, and you have a fun little animation. More stuff here: artstation.com/chrisscalf_cgsbgsSome more goof-off animated doodles in quarantine time.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2020-05-09 | Zbrush. Lightwave. After Effects... Meant to be flat 2D animatic style... (no shaders) More stuff here: artstation.com/chrisscalf_cgsbgsAnimated painting techniques...Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2020-05-09 | Zbrush. Lightwave. After Effects. More stuff here: artstation.com/chrisscalf_cgsbgs8-9-19 digital art exercise warm upArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2019-08-09 | Here's a digital warm-up exercise that I doodled on for a few hours over the course of a couple days. These "warm-ups" are like the artistic/mental equivalent to doing push-ups or sit-ups for me. Literally trying to get the mind flowing, pushing myself through very uninspired tiredness, to get the day going. Photo reference is off to the side-- basically studying values/details and practicing the art tools.Todays drawing practice one layer.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2019-08-07 | Yesterday, I was completely sleep deprived, so I forced myself to do a practice piece. I do a lot of these… I never usually share them. As a commercial artist, I often have to paint high volumes of work on auto-pilot… That is to say, artists cannot always be inspired— and when commercial deadlines are on the table we gotta work— no matter how we feel. So I push myself through practice pieces all of the time-- especially when I am feeling “blah". This about an hour and 45 minutes worth of noodling (with some pics off the side of kids at a zoo for lighting reference). It is definitely unfinished... But close enough to share as WIP. Photoshop. Wacom Intuos Pro. Also— done on only one layer. That’s part of the drill/practice...Weekend Kaiju practice art. (1 minute time lapsed- no sound)Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2019-08-05 | Here is something I noodled out over the weekend. Not quite a "finished" piece, but close enough... Real time is about 6 hours.Drawing PracticeArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2019-07-08 | Got super busy over the winter, and work has finally given me a breather. Been doing some "me time" artwork, creating new projects, animations, etc. In between, I tried to record some of the concerting I was doing to share the work. Here are a few from the last week or so. Enjoy!Painting a dragon on an iPad in Procreate.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-11-10 | Here is my first ever iPad color painting. I would say that I lost control of the visual feel about halfway through. hahaha At that point, I am working only "by the numbers" and laying down detail based on my technical understanding of creating an illustration... No feeling, no inspiration-- just awkwardly trying to get the feel of the iPad and the app. :) But this is only because I have never done this before. The app is fantastic. (I used an Apple Pencil-- also fantastic).
The app is Procreate. Real time was a little under a couple hours...
So bizarre trying to do this, when I am used to using photoshop, and a Wacom Intuos pro. With Intuos Pro, you draw on the tablet and the art shows up on the screen. So you are not drawing directly over the image with your hand. That being said, I was subconsciously relating it to drawing on paper and kept feeling like my hand was gonna smudge the art. Ha.
But as far as the app goes-- this is extremely user friendly and VERY promising. I am definitely going to spend a LOT more time doing more of these. Such an inexpensive app for creating digital art. Love it. I can see it being very useful once I get comfortable with it and start cranking to tons more art.
BTW-- for more of my dragon art and tutorials, check out these links: udemy.com/how-to-digitally-drawpaint-a-realistic-dragon-in-photoshop/?couponCode=FACEBOOKFRIENDSCGS Photorealism: udemy.com/how-to-digital-painting-photo-realism-in-photoshop/?couponCode=REALISM_SOCMEDDigitally painting a cartoon dog character...Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-10-15 | The realtime video was about 30 minutes, and is part of a narrated tutorial (found here: udemy.com/how-to-draw-and-paint-cartoon-characters-digitally/?couponCode=CGSBGSNTWRK ) Photoshop Wacom Intuos Prodraw/paint cartoon characters digitally... Cat!!Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-10-05 | Here is my beginning video of how to draw and paint cartoon characters in Photoshop. This is a time-lapse video of the real time narrated tutorial that can be found here: udemy.com/how-to-draw-and-paint-cartoon-characters-digitally/?couponCode=CGSBGSNTWRKDigital Painting Happy October!Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-10-03 | Time leased video of digital art practice. Not quite done, but far enough to share! Real is about 2 hours. Thanks for watching!Digital Sketch Exercise (time lapse- no sound)Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-10-01 | Here is an exercise that I do for practice. The idea is to keep the image zoomed out at exactly the same size the whole time, and only do it on one layer. This slows me down considerably, but forces me to be more precise at my technique. If you are interested in the real time version of this (or other vids) check out my Gumroad page here: gumroad.com/cgsbgs_chrisscalf Realtime of this video is a little over an hour...Bray Road Beast VFX shot...Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-08-20 | Hey, all.. In an attempt to keep this channel updated, dropping by real quick to drop in some quick clips. Yeah, no sound as usual. Literally just dropping by very quickly to share. :) This is a shot for a documentary film by Small Town Monsters (see info here: smalltownmonsters.com/bray-road-beast.html ) This particular shot was a few days worth of work. Basically, the animals are 100% illustrated (not typical CGI) and mixed in with real photography of background and foreground elements. Very quick and cost effective VFX. ;)Painting a fantasy landscape for animation..Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-08-17 | Working on more “animated paintings” between my deadlines. Here is a work in progress… At the end, you will see a dragon and a little girl. I emphasize "WIP" as these are just animatic place holders. Going to be replacing these with tighter renders once all of the illustration is created. (I am scrubbing the curser back and forth, checking the balance of the elements added so far.) Scenery Illustration work was about 3 hours so far...Sketching a dinosaur then animating the sketch.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-06-25 | Saw Jurassic World 2 this weekend, made me wanna animate a dinosaur painting. Here’s a loose/crude animatic sketch of some explorations that I hope to work on when I get caught up with deadlines… More to come. Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, After Effects.Animated Dragon Painting early WIPArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-05-15 | Hey, Youtubers... Just thought I'd drop in real quick to give a brief art update and say hello. I am just starting to animat the last dragon piece that I uploaded here recently. basically, I drop in loose pieces of art and try to get a feel for color while I look for little detail tricks I want to add to the image. In this video, I am just scrubbing the time indicator back and forth randomly looking at various details. (Wizard is not yet animated, so I left that layer off). This is just some rough movement so I can get a look at the dragon art in different poses. Once I have everything tightened, I will do the real animation movement. More to come!Speed painting Dragon and the wizard.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-04-15 | EDIT. This was originally created from a tutorial I made that was going to be bonus content on my Udemy video tutorials. A few years ago, I got the tutorial 90% completed and the external hard drive I was storing them on fell to the floor and broke. I was CRUSHED to lose all that time and work. Dragon tutorials: udemy.com/how-to-digitally-drawpaint-a-realistic-dragon-in-photoshop/?couponCode=CGSBGS_FB_DEVART gumroad.com/cgsbgs_chrisscalf Werewolf tutorial: udemy.com/how-to-draw-hairy-creatures-in-photoshop/?couponCode=YTCGSBGS12 Photorealism tutorial: udemy.com/how-to-digital-painting-photo-realism-in-photoshop/?couponCode=SARAHYOUTUBE1How to draw dragons the origins of my technique.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-04-14 | Hey, everyone! Thought I'd drop in here real quick and share these vids with you.... These are actually the first 3 parts of my dragon realism tutorial that I just uploaded here: udemy.com/how-to-digitally-drawpaint-a-realistic-dragon-in-photoshop/?couponCode=CGSBGS_FB_DEVART. I know some people were waiting for me to finally get that uploaded and available...
But I thought it would be good to also share this chunk of footage as it is very relevant to the many dragon videos I have uploaded on YT over the years.
Please comment below-- or subscribe to see more stuff coming very soon!Hyper Realism: Digitally painting a cat in PhotoshopArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-03-07 | Here is another one of my realism exercises. My cat. Realtime was about 2 hours.
Been posting a lot of these realism demos, and it is resurrecting the age old question: What’s the point? (i.e. why not just take a picture? Or— where is the artist value? And so on...)
First: Painting photo realism conditions you. It trains you. Just like a musician practicing scales, or even imitating a song written by someone else. It improves your chops. But it Also trains your mind’s eye to observe details you take for granted in everyday real life. (Such as hues and colors you did not realize were there when you glance at everyday objects and living things). It also teaches you form, and structure— all the way down the nitty gritty of the finest details.
Second: I do it because it does have commercial value. As a commercial illustrator, I am called upon MANY times to do a job because of my ability to do this. Whether it is photo retouching, or simply the need for a total photo real illustration. The work exists. Been doing them for years. :)
Third: It entertains. It has value in that people like watching it. It is a skill that most people appreciate when they watch it being done. And as a freelance artist who is always looking for new clients, it is important for me to make these, and share them. :)
So there you go. :) I hope you enjoy the vid, those of you who like this kind of thing. :) and those who keep asking why— I hope my answer helps you out. Thanks!Painting Red Riding Hood DigitallyArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-03-02 | Here's a project that I have been noodling on between the cracks of my deadline work. It's not done... But it's done enough o share this "making of" progress with you kind folks who are into watching the process time lapse vids. ;) I am still tightening it (as you'll notice by the imbalance of level of detail) will be making a new video once I top it off... I might changing the position of the wolf's arms, I dunno..
Anyway-- thanks for watching!!!!Fantasy art digital painting.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-03-01 | Hey, everyone. Wondering what is happening to YT? Video views are getting lower and lower. Meanwhile, other places where I am posting the same content are getting views through the roof... It's kinda like the party left the building and started hanging out somewhere else. Heh. Oh, well. Anyway... Here is a painting that I have yet to finish... It is close. ;) Some tightening and revisions to proportions on her face, etc. that I still need to do. But before it falls into obscurity on my HD, I thought I would share it for those on here that like to see me work through these things... Once I finish and correct it, I will upload a new vid. In the meantime, enjoy.Digital Color Sketch of a dog.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-02-28 | Here is a color study I did today of a black dog (lab mix). I partially did this to observe certain details in this kind of dog, as I am going to be doing a pencil tutorial on drawing a black lab very soon. But I also wanted to share this as an exercise that other beginning artists can do. This is only 1 hour and 20 minutes worth of work— not at all a final illustration. In fact, you can find plenty of flaws in it, as it is merely an exploration of how to execute certain details in a drawing of a black dog. A lot of times in my professional work, this is a stage of art that needs to be done before a final illustration, to explore colors, moods, etc, (There would be a few phases before this of sketch and b/w mode, of course). And once the feel is right, then the client would give approval to move to a tighter version with more care to fine detail and proportions.
You can see me start by experimenting with blocking in shapes, etc with different brushes on why to undo the process and redo it again in another method. I had 2 photo references off to the side, neither of which were good enough as stand alone refs, so I tried to combine elements of both pictures. One thing that threw me a little were the dog’s eyes… This dog actually has a tiny bit of husky in him, and the result is that he has white parts in his eyes. I did not draw those. Instead, I tried to image what it would look like with those filled in.
Thanks for watching!Learning how to explore colors and shading in digital art.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-02-27 | Here is a personal project I wanted to share with you. This is simply an exploratory piece, where I am just doing some studies of color and lighting on a sketched face from my mind. At some points, I am using various photos here and there, examining different hues in the skin, etc. This is just a study— not meant to be a finished piece of art. :) In the end, you can see various versions (ones that are not in the video) that I spun off with… About 1 hour 23 minutes realtime. Thanks for watching.Painting a Hyper Realistic Dragon In Photoshop!Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-02-24 | EDIT: Course is now live on Udemy! udemy.com/how-to-digitally-drawpaint-a-realistic-dragon-in-photoshop/?couponCode=CGSBGS_FB_DEVART
Here’s my latest dragon painting. It’s not quite done, but I really wanted to share the progress, as it is at a point worthy enough to show. :) Creating this as part of a tutorial on dragon painting to be featured on Udemy. Dragons, werewolves, and photorealism are, so far, the most popular subject that I paint. And I already have the werewolf tutorials up here: udemy.com/how-to-draw-hairy-creatures-in-photoshop/?couponCode=YTCGSBGS12 and photo realism here: udemy.com/how-to-digital-painting-photo-realism-in-photoshop/?couponCode=SARAHYOUTUBE1 But this is only the beginning… I have so much tutorial footage piled up, I will be adding it to my Udemy as I get it edited.
Thanks to all who have followed and supported over the years! And if you like, please follow my art Facebook page here: facebook.com/ScalfCreativeLearning how to paint a portrait using a completely different picture for color referenceArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-02-21 | Hi, people. Here is a video I have uploaded before-- but wanted to include the reference photo this time. Relevant, as I have been working a tutorial covering the topic of using other photos for color reference only in digital art. AT the end, you'll see a glimpse of the latest one I have been working on for my tutorial. The reference photo is another painting that I did for a completely different tutorial (that can be found here: udemy.com/how-to-digital-painting-photo-realism-in-photoshop/?couponCode=SARAHYOUTUBE1How to animate concept art- brief overviewArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-02-18 | Hey, gang.. Last minute Saturday night video creation/upload. I apologize if this video is choppy. There were some glitches that got cut out. But this is just a quick peak behind the curtain for this interested in my animation technique. :) Enjoy!Animated Werewolf PaintingsArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-02-17 | Hey, gang. I dug up these animation renders from my hard drives, trying to find some suitable assets to re-aniamte for an intro to my werewolf digital painting tutorials. These are 2 clips that I can obviously expand upon, if I dig out the assets and re-render them from other angles, etc. Please let me know what you like or don't like about this stuff. I want to adjust the stuff accordingly (and use some pretty creepy sound as well).
Also-- Let me know if this process interest you. I do plan on creating more tutorials on how to animate like this. I currently have a Lightwave overview tutorial on my Skillshare pare here: http://skl.sh/2FA60d0
This is a process mostly designed for animatics. That is to say, they are not to be compared to full CGI. It's a one man operation wherein the artist basically projects and animated his/her 2D digital concept art. The software process is; art is fully painted in photoshop, 3D mesh is created in Lightwave and the art is projected onto the mesh. Final step, the renders are composited into After Effects.
Hey, everyone... I am hard at work on a bunch of tutorials. Some you can find through SKILLSHARE here: http://skl.sh/2B2JbLh This video here, is the first video in a long series that I will be uploading on tutorial sites such as SKILLSHARE, but I also have content up on Udemy… Check it out here: udemy.com/how-to-draw-hairy-creatures-in-photoshop/?couponCode=YTCGSBGS12
Regarding this pic: I am creating it out of my imagination, using certain rules of creating proportions that I learned a long time ago. In this exercise, I am attempting to create a portrait of a woman with larger fuller lips in an attempt to break out of my same old pattern that I use when I draw women. At this point, unfinished as it is, it could go in a lot of different directions-- I could even change her ethnicity slightly, and end up with a completely different picture than what you see here. Sty tuned!
I will also be uploading other tutorials here, very soon. Please subscribe to be notified of those uploads. I will be uploading the second part of this video soon, as well as a third part. (The rest will be uploaded on those tutorial sites.)
Thanks for watching!Photoshop Werewolf Tutorial (time lapsed)Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-01-17 | The above is a time lapsed video of a tutorial I just finished.
I finally got a NARRATED tutorial done on how I work when I create these crazy werewolf paintings... Tutorial can be found here : udemy.com/how-to-draw-hairy-creatures-in-photoshop/?couponCode=YTCGSBGS12WIP. 2.5D.. Animated Painting progress...Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2018-01-01 | Before I prepare to do the final HD render, I back up into "black and white mode" again and do some very low res renders to get a feel for the over all contrast and depth of all of the various pieces. At this phase, I do some random facial movements and look for pieces of illustration to add to it, etc. Here I am working on some of the shading as he turns. Also, looking for ways to improve the blinking eyes. You’ll notice that at the side view, there are some pieces missing as well. As an illustrate, its a lot of fun doing this. Even if the final result still doesn’t look real enough, it’s pretty cool top have a 100% painted animation.My 2d Digital realism exercise projected onto polygons.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-12-30 | Here is the photo realism art exercise I posted on here, prior to this, where I am projecting the art onto some polygons in Lightwave as I go. This is merely work in progress. The final result will eventually be in color. (This is for a VFX technique demonstration.)Realism Study digital art. WIPArt and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-12-27 | Some WIP skin/realism digital painting study I am working on between deadlines. Not a real person, making him up-- but using bit's and pieces (including my own face) for reference on texture.Digital portrait painting study...Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-30 | GUMROAD: gumroad.com/cgsbgs_chrisscalf (Found this unfinished portrait on my hard drive... I didn't;t see it on my youtube already after a quick scan, so if it's there and I missed it, I apologize for the rerun.) Some WIP video footage… Practice. People sometimes ask, “what’s the point of trying to paint a photo?” There are SO MANY points. You discover so much— and it increases your speed. In this particular “practice” mode, I try to leave the canvas at the same size for as long as I can (until I can do no more at that magnification) and also try to find the colors myself (no color picking from photo).. It really does help when I go to create stuff from the mind. I learn a lot from doing this. Every time. Like I said, it's like a musician practicing scales— improves the playing when he/she performs the real stuff. I cannot recommend it enough to fellow artists.Photorealism digital warm up PART 2!Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-28 | Still, work in progress... Here is another 35 minutes of work. (before this, I has about 32 minutes in drawing it b/w). More to come!Digital drawing warm-up...Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-27 | Real time is 32 minutes. btw-- Today (Sept 27 2017) , Gumroad will be donating all of their portion of proceeds from sales to Unicef hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico. I too, will be donating my share of my sales on Gumroad to same. Here's a link to my Gumroad, if you would like to purchase something for this cause. gumroad.com/cgsbgs_chrisscalfsketching with acrylics.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-27 | Today, Gumroad will be donating all of their portion of proceeds from sales to Unicef hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico. I too, will be donating my share of my sales make today on Gumroad to same. Here's a link to my Gumroad, if you would like to purchase something for this cause. gumroad.com/cgsbgs_chrisscalf
It's a warm up! I realize I draw a lot of werewolves and dragons. I want to assure my viewers/followers that I am not a one trick pony. These just happen to be a couple of subjects I can draw with almost no thought at all. So it makes for a good warm-up exercise... Helps push me in the direction of more creative ideas. A lot like a guitarist warming up with scales. Black prismacolor pencil on a 9" x 11" sketch pad. real time about 40 minutes.Painting my dragon sculpture.. part 2. WIP!Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-23 | Still a long way off from completion (a LOT more detail is yet to be added). Here is some footage of me building up more layers of paint on my sculpey dragon with my airbrush (Iwata HP-CS). Just acrylic paints (Createx)Airbrushing the dragon sculpt... Laying down the base coat.Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-22 | Blasting some black paint onto my sculpey dragon with an airbrush. Next, some lighter colors. Stay tuned! More soon...Sculpey DRAGON ready for baking!Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-21 | well... Not gonna lie. I'm nervous about this one. Never done anything like this before, so hoping I don't mess it up. Time to stop detailing and just BAKE IT ALREADY. One last go round with the iPhone camera, in case this is the last I see it in a good shape. ;)sculpting a DRAGON in Super Sculpey! (WIP!)Art and Animation of Chris Scalf2017-09-15 | Hey, gang.. thought I'd dip in and out of youtube real quick-- drop a fast video clip of what I have been working on all week. Sculpting! Here's just a peak... Obviously, work in progress! I tried recording a lot of it on video (at least the first half of forming it) but once I started getting into this intense detail, a camera was just getting in the way. But will have a video of the thing soon! Thanks for following! Here's a link to more photos: artstation.com/artwork/ldRXO